Cawson 1 THE MASK AND THE SELF: A HISTORICAL EXPLORATION INTO THE WAYS IN WHICH THE PHENOMENA OF SELFHOOD AND THE THEATRICAL MASK CAN ILLUMINATE EACH OTHER By MATTHEW J. CAWSON A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Royal Holloway University of London Department of Drama and Theatre © Matthew J. Cawson, December 2012 Cawson 2 Declaration of Authorship I, Matthew James Cawson, hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. Signed: ______________________ Date: __19____________________th December 2012 Cawson 3 ABSTRACT This is a historical and philosophical investigation into western theatrical mask practice, looking at the mask in Greek tragedy, focusing on Euripides’ Bacchae, at the commedia dell’arte, focusing on the mask of Arlecchino, and at the neutral mask, focusing on the masque neutre of Jacques Lecoq. This thesis explores the historical and philosophical conditions under which these masks emerged, and enquires into how attitudes to the concept of selfhood and theatrical mask practice are related. The methodology combines the apparently disparate theories of Carl Jung and Michel Foucault in addressing the essential, archetypal factors informing mask practice alongside the historical and the epistemic. From a philosophical perspective, my central thesis is that the mask provides a “third thing” that allows a union of opposites, in this case the self and the other, particularly in the form of the conscious and unconscious self. From a Foucauldian perspective, I argue that the development of the modern concept of the self can be characterised by three historical moments of epistemic crisis that are accompanied by significant developments in the theatrical mask. The mask, at these moments, provides, in Jungian terms, compensation for the rupturing sense of self. The apparent incompatibility of Jung and Foucault belies their common Nietzschean heritage, and I argue for a degree of functional (though not ideological) complementarity between them. I elaborate my argument to maintain that the theatrical mask has played a previously unacknowledged yet important role in the development of the western psyche, and can provide a unique insight into the development of the self. Within this context, I argue that the mask is poised to make a return to the stage, but that it has yet to find a theatrical form that transcends novelty and revivalism. I argue for the fundamental vitality of the mask as a potential force in contemporary theatre. Cawson 4 CONTENTS Contents ..................................................................................................................................... 4 List of Illustrations ................................................................................................................... 11 List of Abbreviations ............................................................................................................... 14 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 15 My Contribution............................................................................................................... 16 Methodology and Approach: Theatre, History and Philosophy ...................................... 16 My Hypothesis ................................................................................................................. 17 The Structure:................................................................................................................... 18 Context and Omissions .................................................................................................... 21 Chapter 1: Autos & Sōma ......................................................................................................... 22 Part 1: The Ancient Greeks .................................................................................................. 23 Unity in Multiplicity: The Fragmented Body .................................................................. 23 The pre-Socratic Philosophers: Flux and Mutability ....................................................... 24 Plato and Aristotle: Externality, Flux and Transcendence ............................................... 25 Synaisthēsis ...................................................................................................................... 26 Plutarch (c.46 – 120AD): the Narrative Self ................................................................... 27 Part 2: The Enlightenment ................................................................................................... 28 David Hume (1711 – 76) and the Empirical Self ............................................................ 28 Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 – 78) and Individualism ................................................... 29 Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804): the Empirical versus the Transcendental ....................... 29 Hegel (1770 – 1831): The Dialectic of Self and Other .................................................... 31 Concluding remarks: The Self and the Loss of Self ........................................................ 32 Chapter 2: Autos, Psychē and the Diminishing Theosphere .................................................... 34 Part 1: The Soul and Polytheism .......................................................................................... 34 Defying Locus: The Transcendental Soul ........................................................................ 35 The Soul and the State: Transcendence, Unity in Multiplicity, and the Will .................. 36 Cawson 5 The Law and the Emergence of Will ............................................................................... 38 Aristotle: The Will and Causality .................................................................................... 39 Part 2: From Polytheism to Monotheism ............................................................................. 40 Theological Fragmentation: Divinity and Corruptibility ................................................. 40 The Soul and Ruptures of Selfhood ................................................................................. 41 The Philosopher’s New Clothes: The Platonic Trinity .................................................... 47 Part 3: Monotheism and Philosophy .................................................................................... 48 René Descartes (1596 – 1650): The Cogito and the Body-Mind Split ............................ 48 Hegel’s Phenomenology .................................................................................................. 50 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 51 Chapter 3: Nietzsche, Jung and the Growth of the Unconscious............................................. 52 Part 1: Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 – 1900) and the Death of God ....................................... 52 Nietzsche contra Hegel .................................................................................................... 53 Apollo Versus Dionysus .................................................................................................. 54 The Death of God – Behold the Man! ............................................................................. 55 The Soul as symptom of the Diseased Animal ................................................................ 56 The Will to Power ............................................................................................................ 57 The Übermensch .............................................................................................................. 58 The Error of Causality ..................................................................................................... 60 Part 2: Psychoanalysis.......................................................................................................... 62 Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939) and the Libido ................................................................. 62 The Tripartite Self ............................................................................................................ 64 The Jungian Self: Archetypes, and the Collective Unconscious ..................................... 65 Consciousness: Ego and Persona ..................................................................................... 66 Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious.................................................................... 67 Archetypal Images (or Symbols) and Numinosity........................................................... 69 Universal Archetypes and Cultural Diversity .................................................................. 69 Cawson 6 Some Specific Archetypes ............................................................................................... 70 Part 3: Jung, Nietzsche, and the Union of Opposites ........................................................... 72 Multiplicity without Cartesian Dualism........................................................................... 73 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 74 Chapter 4: Postmodernity, Neurology and the Quantum Self ................................................. 76